What graphics card is right for me??

I am looking for a new laptop and one of my biggest priorities is the video card.
I will be using it on dual-boot Vista-Ubuntu, playing games such as Oblivion; Half-Life/Portal, 3D animating with Blender.org, and need the best battery life I can get.
I think I want nVidia but I don't really know what I should want...
I've been assuming 256mb ram is a good amount but I don't really know about that either!
Thanks!

 

Well it depends on how high you want the graphics and what resolution you want it on.

The 8600m GT in my laptop can handle mostly every new game on high, except for Cryisis of corse, on 1280 x 800 but if you want to play at higher resolution I would suggest a card like the 9700/9800 GT or GTS. Also how much money do you plan on spending on a laptop because that is also a big part of the decision.

 

my total laptop cost is looking around $1,400...
My first choice right now is an hp dv5t with 9200M GS.
I have also been looking at Asus but am wondering whether their flashier cards are going to be overkill and drain my battery.
med-high settings at 1280x800 is what I'm looking at I guess...

 

My laptop (sig) was $1,099 CAD.

 

Check out Lenovo T500.

256mb of ram is not enough to even game on XP none the less Vista even RUN Vista o.o I'd say you should look at 2gb-3gb of ram with Vista if you want to play games.

 

I would recommended a mid range 128bit graphics card such as the Nvidia 8600GT or similar 9 series card OR an ATI card, the 2600 and the 3650 would be good fits.

Although 64bit cards such as the 8400gs, 9200gs or the ati 3450 or 2400 would be good enough to run the Half Life 2 series of games they won't be sufficient in the coming years. In other words they may get you by now, by in a years time you may well wish you had something with a bit more power. Of course these lower end cards do give you more power life, its your job to find the balance. And don't bother with a 256mb card unless its got a 128bit card bus which can actually utilize the ram available.

 

I was meaning 256mb video ram... I'll have 2-3gb regular ram.
and the T500 is integrated video not dedicated

 

HP's DV5 and DV7 series have a good history of heating problems. And I would avoid NVIDIA right now.

Better to go for a HD2600 XT or the X1900 or the HD 3850....

 

Why are people recommending defective cards? :S The Nvidia 8300/8400/8600/8700 cards are defective..

I see.. amount of video ram is not as important as some people seem to think. Not all 256mb dedicated cards are created equal.

The T500 can be configured with a dedicated ATI 3650. You can choose to have integrated if you want, but you're not stuck with it.

 

By my understanding the Nvidia cards were manufactured in defective material and the latest ones made don't have the faulty material anymore, even then yes you should probably get an ATI card. Are there any particular laptop brands you prefer?

 

Get the HP dv5t with the NIVIDIA 9600M if you want to be playing games smoothly in the coming years. It'll suck up more of your battery life and generate a little more heat (due to it being a higher end graphics card), but it's an excellent choice, and as of right now none of them (the 9200, 9600, and the 9800 series graphics cards) are defective like the 8400, 8600, and the 8800 series graphics cards also from NIVIDIA

 

I pretty restricted by what each model offers in terms of components so I'll have to do my best...
If the 9200M GS is a bit slim then I'd have to upgrade to a 9600M GT in the hp dv5t.
the Asus M50-Sv has a 9500M GS but most other Asus' have gb of video ram!

What do you mean by a 128-bit card bus to utilize the 256? wont most larger cards be designed to use themselves??
And does a 64-bit video card have to go with a 64-bit OS?
Thanks!

 

Big apology, I think I confused you a little...

No, the card bus does not determine what OS bitage you need, a 256/128/64bit will all run fine on 32/62 bit Operating system.

You may want to read this at some stage (before you buy obviously): http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=275056

 

The 9200m GS is a very, very weak card. The 9600m GT should be good for you.

The 128-bit video card bus an only utilize up to 256mb really, so the rest is kind of overkill but it certainly wont hurt anything to have more.

And no, the bits on a video card has nothing to do with the bits in an OS.

 

off to read your link, be back to check in soon...
thanks for all the help so far!!

 

No. A lot of people who buy computers judge the video card mostly by the memory so the companies that make graphics cards stuff extra memory on there even if the card will not use it except under some rather unlikely circumstances. For example, my laptop's card (an 8600M GT) has 512MB of memory, but it can only use roughly half of that (it's still a good card, but the 512MB is wasted on it).

No. These numbers have absolutely nothing to do with each other -- there are plenty of video cards with 128, 256, 512, etc. buses.

If you're feeling limited by the price, another alternative is to sacrifice some processor quality for the sake of everything else. Example: Gateway M6862. This has a decent graphics card (ATI 2600 HD), hard drive (250GB at 5400 rpm) and RAM (4GB DDR2-667), but a pretty old processor (T5750) for $750.

 

If you want a budget gaming laptop look at either the gateway 7811 or the new toshiba qosima

 

OK! SO!
I gather that I should stick with either an nVidia 9600M GT or an ATI HD 3600/3650, treating them about equal and choosing depending on the laptop make/model of choice...
right?

btw, can the 9600M GT use all it's 512mb of ram? how much ram does the Ati have?

 

Actually the Geforce 9600M GT should be a tad more powerful compared to the ATi HD 3650. The ATi HD 3650 is more along the lines of the Geforce 9500M GS. Both the Geforce 9600M GT and ATI HD 3650 won't be able to effectively utilize much more than 256MB of video RAM. This has to do with a various different reasons with the 128-bit memory bus type being one of them. I’m sure thought that the memory would become handy while image editing with large textures.

 

if i was you, id goto tiger direct and check out there gateway laptops...8800m gts variety
or staples and check out the laptop i just bought 6874h i thought it was good for the price but after getting cool temps with overclocking id says its quite the deal now. 800 bucks and is similar if not better than my other laptop choice which is in fred sig... the acer 6920 gemstone with the 9500m gs..Id hold off on the most expensive laptop right now, becuase im sure the prices will drop further for most laptops with decent dedicated cards..

but still 800 bucks cad for the 6874h...its a wicked deal..and if your curious i get 4290 3dmark06 and ive been talking and sharing info with the owner of a 8600m gddr3 and too my suprise i was getting 7 fps more in crysis with his settings, so dont look too deeply into benchmarks like i have...btw with the acer it is a 9500m gs but its basically a faster 8600m gt, i tested one out and it plays games very well..id say maybe a touch better than mine even..

think longer about getting a 8800m gts, because even that card cannot play the latest games max...gpu prices havent caught up with the new games yet.

also im still looking for another laptop before this 30 day recipt garbage runs out...but its not easy finding a better card for around 400 more cad in canada of course...althougth like i mentioned tigerdirect has one really good gateway for like 1600 cad..

 

dont forget about the new montevina 6920, the acer aspire 6930.

it has a 9600 GT and 3 hours of batt life

 

Geforce 9600M GT DDR3 to be exact.

 

hey wassup!
im also stuck abit out here!
plannin to buy a new laptop... as goin to UK for further studies....
wanna kill spare time by playin games .. like half life n its franchise games --> counter strike... (well my knowledge to games is kinda limited .. juss a fan of half life, really hooked onto it;-))

I have been decidin between....

1. Dell Studio15 wid ATI HD 3450 256mb card
2. Dell XPS 1530 wid 8600GT 256mb card
3. HP DV5 with 9600GT 512mb card
4. acer aspire 6920 wid 9500GS 512mb card
5. sony fw series wid ATI HD 3470
6. Apple Macbook pro wid 8600GT 256mb

I dont wanna pay alot... prices differ as i may end up buyin these from India or UK where the prices are much more than the prices in US so cant really compare prices...

Pro and cons from my point of view:-
Note:- id be playin majorily.. half life and counter strike...

STudio 15, like it coz of the backlite keyboard and LED display(like the macbook, but not as expensive as em;-) but have heard that the graphic card aint that powerful... will it be able to play half life and counter strike???

XPS 1530... really love the design n stuff (cousin has the 1330 and it is a really awesome pc) but kinda on the expesnive side... is it worth it?? and how well can it play half life and counter strike???

HP DV5... mindblowingly awesome... comes wid an in built tv tuner., love the infinity finish of the lcd panel.... but i dunno how good the graphic card stands out.... and bout the heating problems tooo??? but hate the glossy finish... finger print magnet;-)

ACER aspire6920... dirt cheap;-)...bowled ova by the media controls.. really futuristic... n love the 16:9 ratio lcd panel and the 16" lcd... again dunno how good the graphic card is???

Sony FW series... nice display... 16:9 ratio... kinda on the expensive side... again dunno how good the graphic card is ....

Finally Apple Macbook... love it... the only thing steerin me away from it is the price... if it would have been cheaper in the range of the other laptops... i would have juss end up gettin it wid closed eyes... used my frnds .. n kinda like OSX as oppose to Vista...

I would be basically usin the laptop for general purpose... listenin to lots of music n watchin movies.... and playin games tooo ... so wat do ya'll suggest???

any suggestion would be really great;-)
thanz alot in advance( by sayin this i hope some ppl do reply back to this post;-))

anywayz... tace kare ...
enjoy;-)

 

1. Dell Studio15 wid ATI HD 3450 256mb card
2. Dell XPS 1530 wid 8600GT 256mb card
3. HP DV5 with 9600GT 512mb card
4. acer aspire 6920 wid 9500GS 512mb card
5. sony fw series wid ATI HD 3470
6. Apple Macbook pro wid 8600GT 256mb

Lets see crossout the Dell XPS 1530 the GPU is one of the defective Nvidia chips. Crossout the Macbook pro off too just too expensive you can get a high end gaming laptop for that price. Crossout the Sony also too expensive with that setup. The Dell Studio 15 will definately maxed out Halflife 2, CSS and the Orange Box games with that setup and the latest games but at reduced settings. The DV5 is a good choice as well if you want to future proof your machine. In my opinon the Acer will be a good choice for you depending on the weight of the laptop.

 

hey ppl plz help on this... need urgent help!!!

@King19
thanz alot dude!
well even im debatin between the studio and dv5t...
but after hearin ppl sayin that their dv5 overheat n stuff... im kinda scared...
and wid dell im save coz of the 3 yrs warranty and also 3 yrs of accidental coverage... wat more can i ask for... hahahha...
have been advised to stay away from acers... ppl say not very stable n stuff .. n also afetr sale services not very good... atleast in india

 

A 8600/9600/2600/3650 series will do you just fine.

 

I'm going for a computer with a Radeon HD 3450 simply because the games I play the most like BF2 are older games that don't need a crazy GPU. The 3450 will still run newer games well with reduced settings, but older stuff is perfect for it.